Written by

Raju Chebium

Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Gov. John Hickenlooper and a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged Congress on Tuesday to extend production tax credits for the wind-energy industry before the end of the year.

Hickenlooper joined fellow Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon, GOP Govs. Terry Branstad of Iowa and Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to push for the wind production tax credit to be renewed beyond Dec. 31.

Wind energy accounts for 9.2 percent of Colorado’s electricity, enough to power nearly 500,000 homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The state has attracted more than $700 million in investments for current or planned wind farms, the group said.

Vestas Wind Systems has four plants in Colorado, including one in Windsor, but has been trimming its workforce in the state citing the uncertainty surrounding the wind credit.

The Danish turbine maker employs 1,200 Coloradans at one factory each in Windsor and Pueblo and two in Brighton. That’s down from 1,700 at the beginning of 2012. Vestas cut its overall North American workforce from 3,400 to about 2,600 this year.

Supporters say Congress must continue to support an industry that produces clean, renewable energy and reduces U.S. dependence on foreign oil. But opponents say taxpayers shouldn’t prop up an industry that has long received support and still produces a fraction of the nation’s electricity.

The wind industry could shed 37,000 jobs if Congress ends the tax credit, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a lobbying group.

Hickenlooper said Colorado has expanded wind-energy production from 50 megawatts to more than 2,000 megawatts in 10 years and will continue to produce more with congressional help.

“Support for wind comes not just ... from one part of our state but from rural to urban areas,” he told reporters via telephone. “It’s quite clear this is the most popular initiative we have ... in the energy sector.”

The wind production tax credit has been in effect off and on since 1992. The current credit — 2.2 cents for every 1,000 watts of wind energy produced — has been in effect continually since 2005.

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Supporters want Congress to extend it for one year at a cost of about $5 billion, Grassley said. Legislation pending in the House would renew it for five years.

Grassley said the wind tax credit will be part of a bigger package of research and development incentives that advocates want Congress to approve in the lame-duck session.

With the end of year fast approaching and Congress facing a full workload to avoid sharp tax increases and steep spending cuts, an extension of the wind credit is no sure thing.

“We know this isn’t something that is going to last forever. Wind energy is getting more efficient all the time but we believe there needs to be an extension for a period of time,” Branstad, who chairs the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, said at a news conference.

Colorado Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet are proponents of the wind credit. Since June, Udall has spoken 19 times on the Senate floor to urge Congress to pass it.

Support is strong in the Democratic-majority Senate, where the Senate Finance Committee included the wind credit in a tax package that passed the panel in August. Grassley is a senior Republican on the finance panel.

The GOP-majority House is less receptive, though the wind lobby is encouraged by the re-election of outspoken Republican supporters like Reps. Dave Reichert of Washington; Steve King and Tom Latham, both of Iowa; and Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada.

Opponents say the production credit is a waste of taxpayer money.

The American Energy Alliance argued that the wind industry is strong enough to stand on its own and doesn’t need taxpayer support.

Eighty-eight organizations that oppose the wind credit paid for a full-page ad Wednesday in the Washington newspaper The Hill.

“Whenever the government protects a particular industry, as it has with wind energy production, the industry tends to remain dependent on it,” according to the ad.